NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 177 



so often felt, but never could so well express. When I 

 hear fine music I am haunted with passages therefrom 

 night and day; and especially at first waking, which by 

 their importunity, give me more uneasiness than pleasure ; 

 elegant lessons still tease my imagination, and recur irre- 

 sistibly to my recollection at seasons, and even when I am 

 desirous of thinking of more serious matters. 



I am, &c. 



LETTER LVII 



TO THE SAME 



A RARE, and I think a new, little bird frequents my gar- 

 den, which I have great reason to think is the pettichaps : l 

 it is common in some parts of the kingdom ; and I have 

 received formerly several dead specimens from Gibraltar. 

 This bird much resembles the white-throat, but has a more 

 white or rather silvery breast and belly ; is restless and 

 active, like the willow-wrens ', and hops from bough to 

 bough, examining every part for food ; it also runs up the 

 stems of the crown-imperials, and, putting it's head into the 

 bells of those flowers, sips the liquor which stands in the 

 nectarium of each petal. Sometimes it feeds on the ground 

 like the hedge-sparrow, by hopping about on the grass-plots 

 and mown walks. 



One of my neighbours, an intelligent and observing 

 man, informs me that, in the beginning of May, and about 

 ten minutes before eight o'clock in the evening, he dis- 



1 Evidently the Lesser Whitethroat (Sylvia curruca)[R. B. S.] 

 VOL. II. Z 



